[Chaos-l] Observing Report From Lunar Eclipse Session

[Michael Hrivnak]

I was also at Morehead for the eclipse, and it was a great success.  There 
were definitely a ton of people, and as Robert said, folks would either call 
or go get their friends to have them look at Saturn through a telescope.  
Once the clouds parted, there were lines for the rest of the night at each 
scope.  The line at mine got up to at least a dozen people at one point!  I 
counted 5 telescopes plus a pair of mounted binoculars.

The UNC girls really were hilarious.  Each one had the same three-step viewing 
process: "Where do I ... but, I don't see ...     Ohh My GOOOOOOOD!!!"

The color scheme on the moon was especially beautiful when one edge was just 
barely in direct sunlight, as Jayme's pictures reveal.  There was a deep ruby 
red transitioning through a more vibrant peachy orange, right into a fiery 
hot white.  A friend in New Hampshire who saw it only with the naked eye said 
it looked quite purple from up there.  Considering the rapid temperature drop 
that was going on here and all the air/cloud movement above us, the viewing 
was surprisingly clear, although I couldn't put as much power on Saturn as I 
had wanted.

Many thanks to the folks at the Planetarium.  I met several very nice people 
who work there, and I look forward to the next event.

Michael


On Thursday 21 February 2008 12:53:52 pm Robert Nielsen wrote:
> Last night, the Morehead Planetarium hosted a lunar eclipse observing
> session on the sundial in front of the planetarium ... and in spite of
> the discouraging cloud cover right at the beginning of the session, it
> was a success, in my opinion!  I'm not sure about the number of people
> that attended ... but judging by the length of the line behind my
> telescope to see Saturn, I would guess there was between 100 and 200
> people there ... possibly up to 300.    At 8:30, when the session began
> (and the moon entered the penumbra), I thought we were in serious
> trouble concerning the clouds.  By 9 PM or so, the entire sky was
> covered with thick clouds, offering only seconds of visibility to the
> moon every now and then.   But as the totality approached, more and more
> "holes" in the clouds appeared, and between 10 PM and 11 PM ... it was
> actually pretty good.   Everyone who stayed got a good view of the
> eclipse, and views of Saturn through the various scopes.
>
> Some interesting anecdotes from the session:
>
> During the "cloudy" period early on ... people would wander by and ask
> "was this the place to see the eclipse?".   I would answer "yes", and
> more often than not, people would ask "where is it"?  I would politely
> answer that it was behind the clouds roughly toward the south and point
> in the general direction.   I was standing next to my telescope (which I
> admit is impressive to "muggles") and they wanted to know if they could
> see the eclipse through the telescope.   Again, I answered ... it's
> behind the clouds.    Sigh ...
>
> Multiple times during the night, some undergraduate coeds from UNC would
> see Saturn through my telescope and say things like "no way!" and "shut
> up!" when I told them they were just looking through lenses and mirrors
> at the real planet out in space.  A little while later, the SAME folks
> would show up, with 3-5 additional people ... just to see Saturn and the
> eclipse.   So there IS advantage to holding an observing session in the
> middle of town ... where visitors can immediately bring other visitors
> back to the site!
>
> One of the things I wanted to do during the night was to try to take
> some pictures of the eclipse (see my earlier posting for the URL to see
> the pictures).   Right about the time of the totality (roughly 10:30 PM)
> ... I broke into the line of people waiting to see Saturn through my
> scope and told them I needed to take some pictures (my camera was
> piggybacked on my scope).   Believe it or not, some people actually
> GRUMBLED because they had to wait in line a little longer to see
> things.   I guess that's the problem with public sessions ... no real
> "science" can really happen.   In any case, they figured out I really
> did have priority on my own scope, and settled down.
>
> I was ready, and counted the number of times someone said (looking at
> Saturn through my telescope for the first time) "it looks just like a
> sticker" - 79 times.
>
> Still ... the experience of being there when an 8-year-old kid sees
> Saturn ... and says "WOW!" ... is priceless.   I never get tired of it.
>
> Thanks again to the Morehead Planetarium for holding the session out
> front ... and inviting us to join.   Walter and I were worried that this
> was another one of those "once in a long while" astronomical events that
> was going to be "rained out" ... but eventually the weather
> cooperated.   It was a fun night ... especially when I got the text
> message that Duke had lost to Miami!!!!!!
>
> Robert
>
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